Lessons Learned

Chase and I got back from our second shakedown hike late Monday night. We had planned to stay out another night on the trail, but a forecast of near 20 degrees and gale-force winds changed our minds. This trip was scheduled to be our longest yet in addition to being our first trip with the dog, and I'm happy to report that it went well. Nevertheless, there are always lessons to be learned from the trail.

We ended up hiking from Amicalola to Neels Gap from Thursday-Monday. Our longest day was 11.5 miles on Sunday. We didn't hit the trail until noon on Thursday, so we stopped just short of Springer at sunset and camped at Black Gap shelter. The next day we summited Springer and made it to Hawk Mountain shelter where we camped with a few Southbounders, Trooper and Number Two, who were poised to finish the next day. Saturday we traveled from Hawk Mountain to Gooch Gap and vowed to try to cover more ground the next day. Sunday we made it all the way to Woods Hole shelter, which is located an inconvenient 0.4 miles off of the AT but the location and condition of the shelter are worth the hike in. We finished our trip with a easy 3.4 mile hike up Blood Mountain and down to Neels Gap before getting a ride back to Amicalola. 

Here's what we learned in our 5 days on the trail:

Lesson #1: The Days are Short, and the Nights are Long…

Naturally, daylight hours are cut short in the fall and winter. Unfortunately, this effect isn't very noticable in the lower latitudes of La Florida. During our hike, sunrise was around 7:00am and sunset hovered around 5:30pm. This gave us a little over 10 hours of potential hiking time. Yes, we could have hiked in the dark and I fully expect to on our thru… but we weren't quite willing to do so this time around. With limited daylight, we didn't nearly cover the amount of ground that I was expecting.  A part of this was because we didn't have our hiker-legs yet, but more so it was because we are sloooow to pack up camp in the morning, especially when it's 30 degrees out. The other result of only having 10 hours of daylight is that night lasts 14 hours. 14 hours spent laying in the tent, waiting for the sun to rise. Granted we slept most of these 14 hours, but the 2 or 3 hours spent laying awake were absolute torture.

Lesson #2: Ditch Hot Breakfast

It took us 2 hours on average to pack up camp. This includes making breakfast, changing into hiking clothes, packing our sleep systems, getting Sheila ready to hike, hand-feeding the dog her breakfast (more on this later), and packing up the tent. That's it. 

This fact was driving me crazy, so by Day 3 I made the radical suggestion to ditch hot breakfast. No hot cocoa, no coffee, no oatmeal. A Nutrigrain bar to-go and nothing more. This ended up shaving about an hour off of our time to pack up and head out of camp, which was excellent. We also got into the habit of pumping water once making camp that way we wouldn't have to stop during the day or do it in the morning. We met a couple of south-bounders on top of Blood Mountain that said they basically hop from water source to water source and never carry more than a liter with them. I can see how this saves weight, but I can't imagine spending that much time during the day pumping water.

Side-note: Why in the hell are the trails to water always the most steep and treacherous? I almost never have my hiking poles when we go to get water and I am always afraid of busting my butt. 

Lesson #3: Winter Weather Calls for a Winter Bag

For this trip we took our 20 degree Mountain Hardware Lamina sleeping bags, thinking they would be more than sufficient especially with our silk liners, and for 80% of the trip, this combination worked just fine. Our first night on the trail was bitterly cold though, and I can imagine wanting the comfort of the 0 degree bag in the dead of winter in February.

Lesson #4: Avoid Shelters

We stayed in Wood's Hole shelter on our last night, and I'm thinking that will be our final shelter stay if we can help it. This was mainly because it was much colder in the shelter with just the two of us and the dog. Sheila was also kind of a nightmare to deal with in the shelter because we were afraid she would run off in the middle of the night after whatever animal came lumbering by. A third reason is the creepy-crawlies: mice and spiders. I don't mind spiders, but I certainly don't want to sleep with them right next to my face. We weren't planning on staying in shelters during our thru anyway, but it was nice figuring out that we weren't missing much. 

Lesson #5: Work on Cardio

One of the things I've been wanting to do before leaving for the hike is to get in shape. I'm not terribly our of shape per se, but I do lead a sedentary lifestyle that isn't very conducive to hiking well on Day 1. I wasn't really hitting my stride until Day 3, which is normal, but I felt like I was slowing Chase (and Sheila for that matter) down. I really need to work on my cardiovascular endurance. I would start on an uphill and have to stop 8 steps later totally out of breath with my heart trying to burst past my sternum. Chase was patient and encouraging, telling me to go slowly and steadily, and I eventually fell into an even rhythm during ascents. 

Either way, I have noticed such a difference in my body just from being on the trail for 5 days that I would like to keep it up. I'm going to actually start going to the gym and going on runs in my free time to try and stay in shape.

Lesson #6: Trail Runners

We encountered a little trail magic curtesy of Fresh Ground's Leapfrog Cafe at Woody Gap and met quite a few successful thru-hikers. Unfortunately I'm not great at names, so I can't recall who we met, but they all had great advice for us once we told them our plans of attempting a thru next year. One thru-hiker in particular told us that nearly 90% of NOBOs that year wore trail runners in leu of traditional hiking boots. He said that those who did wear trail runners, none of them reported having tired feet or blisters at the end of the day. This was news to me, though I had heard that a lot of people were turning to trail runners. As a result of this conversation, Chase and I are going to look into a couple of options and try to work in one more shakedown hike in our new trail runners before setting out in February.

I actually ended up getting a little compression neuropathy from the hike in both of my big toes and the ball of my left foot. It's only temporary and only mildly annoying, but I'm hoping a combination of hiking in trail runners and some different orthotics will solve this problem. I'm currently hiking in some mid-top Lowa's with Superfeet insoles, so I may try layering these with some Dr. Scholl's massaging gel insoles to help absorb the impact.

Lesson #7: Be Flexible

It was hard for me to come to terms with the fact that we just weren't making the kind of miles I thought we would make, but by Day 3 I learned just to let all of the frustration and disappointment go. I would like to attribute this change in attitude to a conversation we were having with Southbounders Trooper and Number Two, whom we camped with at Hawk Mountain Shelter along with section hiker Aquaman. They told us the story of setting out for their thru-hike, how Baxter State Park wouldn't even open Baxter Peak for another week when they had already arrived. They decided to start on the next section of trail rather than remain idle, and ended up beginning their thru-hike by jumping right into the 100-mile wilderness, which is reportedly one of the most difficult sections of trail. It took them 9 days to get through the wilderness but because of this "set-back" they were able to develop their hiker-legs a little before summiting Katahdin. Trooper and Number Two also had to change plans around the White Mountains of New Hampshire. During the days leading up to beginning the Whites, the weather turned really terrible and they new that it was going to be an awful time to try to hike this difficult section of trail. So they skipped it. They hiked south of the Whites until the weather cleared and then returned north to cover the section they missed. Because of this detour, they ended up having sunshine and 300 miles of visibility on top of Mt. Washington, whereas friends of theirs had to crawl across Franconia Ridge on their hands on knees the week before because of how strong the winds were. 

Essentially, these stories made me realize that yeah, the plan won't always work out and you have to be prepared for that. If you can be flexible, you will enjoy your time on the trail a hell of a lot more than if you try to stick to the plan. I'm looking forward to taking it one day at a time…

Overall, this hike went smoothly. We were happy with all of our gear for the most part, and we learned a lot! I hope to post some photos soon! Thanks for reading. 

Shakedown Hike #2

Next week Chase, Sheila, and I will be setting out to Springer Mountain to hike as much of the AT as we can in 5 and a half days! We are planning on driving up in the evening after work, grabbing a hotel and getting a good nights sleep, and then setting off from Amicalola State Park in the morning.

This is our first hike with all of us together and it will be my longest hike yet. We are planning to cover 57.3 miles of the AT plus the 8.8 miles of the Approach Trail for a grand total of 66.1 miles! Oh boy!

To makes things even more exciting, the forecast for next week has winds in the 45 mph range on top of Springer and the low temperature near 28 degrees Fahrenheit! I think this will be a pretty good test of our fortitude and winter gear, though I'm sure the weather in February is going to be pretty different.

We had some last minute gear purchases to make to be ready for the cold weather, including some heavyweight long underwear, Nalgene cozies, and some waterproof over-mitts. Eventually I will put out a collective gear list, but for now there is just no time. I have a lot to say about the gear we've already purchased and used a bit, and I'm anxious to get that information out there!

My biggest challenge has been putting together Sheila's first aid kit. I had to purchase a bunch of stuff and make sure her kit packs down enough to fit in her pack. I plan on making a special post dedicated to doggy first aid. Sheila will be carrying about 5 lbs of her own gear, including 1 L of water, 1.5 days of food, her first aid kit, a ball, a brush, and her bowl. We just ordered a Guyot Designs Squishy Pet Bowl in size small (24 oz). We have the 48 oz version, but it is really just too big and it is a little awkward to pack. I hoping the smaller size will remedy this! We also bought an OllyDog Mt. Tam Hands-Free Dog Leash . I used it to take Sheila for a walk around the neighborhood, and while it is nice having my hands free, I'm not sure if I like how stiff the stretch is in the leash. I'm planning on taking her for a run tomorrow morning to see how it might work out.

Well, that's all for now. I'm completely exhausted… To bed!

Ticks

An unfortunate result from our overnight on the Florida Trail was that Sheila the dog got ticks. Lots of ticks. Hundreds of them! She was just completely infested, and her hair is so long and thick it was really almost impossible to pick them all off. Not to mention they were in the larval portion of their life-stage, so they were no bigger than the tip of a pencil. So we spent Sunday afternoon at the vet getting her treated and online trying to figure out what to do about ticks on the trail. I've learned a lot about ticks and preventative measures in that time, so I wanted to share the knowledge I aggregated for anyone else looking for this information.

What is a tick and why are they bad?
Ticks are a member of the arachnid family, a relative of spiders. There are many different species of ticks found across the country and there are a few that are known to spread disease. These are the ticks that we humans worry about the most. These hard-bodied ticks include the blacklegged or deer tick, the american dog tick, the brown dog tick, Gulf Coast tick, Rocky Mountain wood tick, Pacific Coast tick, and the lone star tick. These ticks can carry a wide array of diseases, most notably Lyme disease, rocky mountain spotted fever, anaplasmosis, and ehrlichiosis. The most common symptoms of tick-borne disease are fevers/chills, aches and pains, and sometimes a distinctive rash (a bulls-eye or spots).

"Bulls-eye" rash most commonly associated with Lyme disease. Curtesy of the CDC

Ticks undergo a complex lifecycle. Most ticks go through four life stages: egg, six-legged larva, eight-legged nymph, and adult. After hatching from the eggs, ticks must eat blood at every stage to survive. Ticks that require this many hosts can take up to three years to complete their full life cycle, and most will die because they don't find a host for their next feeding. This infographic from the CDC illustrates the lifecycle of a typical deer tick.

Lifecycle of a blacklegged tick

Now, we were hiking in early fall/late summer in Central Florida, which means that almost every species of hard-bodied tick could have been crawling around the forest floor. I did manage to pick a few off of her and identify the species of tick. Each had six legs, and a light colored area on the abdomen. I have decided that the ticks that covered Sheila's legs and belly were larval Lone Star ticks. Here is what just a small section of her foreleg with ticks attached to get a better idea of what we were dealing with. Below that is a shot of the alcohol container we used to preserve some of the ticks in, just in case any tick-born illness developed. Note that this many ticks came from just one of her forelegs.

Each black dot is a tick

Larval stage Lone Star ticks that I pulled off of Sheila

I did find a few nymph stage ticks on the bottom of her paws, but I wasn't able to get a good shot of them.

When your dog is infested after a hike, what do you do?
Me? I panicked. I felt like such an awful dog-mom. I made the mistake of thinking that her Trifexis protected her from ticks, so coming home Sunday evening was a harsh reality to face. We stopped by the Tractor Supply and picked up a kennel dip (17% pemethrin, interestingly enough!) and some tick shampoo that would be a bit more gentle on her sensitive skin. I gave her bath and tried to soothe her worried look. I then decided that I couldn't take chances and brought her to our local Banfield Pet Hospital inside of Petsmart. After a few suggestions of having to shave the dog, which I was adamantly against, the vet suggested we use the Preventic collar. He suggested that some studies have shown that the Preventic collar starts killing ticks within 48 hours which would help minimize any risk of disease transmission. At $18.99 this was the option for us! We also opted to have her vaccinated against Lyme and put on a cycle of doxicylin to further protect against infection.

A note about the dose of doxi… we found out later through Tick Encounter Resource from the University of Rhode Island, that larval Lone Star ticks do not transmit disease, though nymph stage ticks may transmit disease. This was mainly a preventative measure because I am a worrier.

The Preventic collar did seem to kill all of her ticks within about 48-72 hours, though it left the ticks dead bodies attached to her which fell off easily after a good brushing. After reading more about the different tick preventatives, we decided that Preventic isn't our best bet while actually hiking the trail.

Types of tick preventative
There are so many types of tick preventative out there, it can be a little overwhelming. Thankfully, a few sites out there have done all of the hard work and summed up each product including active ingredient, application type and even what treatments are effective against which ticks!

Information gathered from marvistavet.com

Information gathered from marvistavet.com

What's the best tick protection for dogs on a thru-hike?
The answer to this varies, as no two dogs are the same. For us, topical treatments do not work well due to the nature of Sheila's thick coat. We are personally going to be using a Seresto collar, which isn't listed above. This collar's main ingredients are imidacloprid and flumethrin, it's safe for dogs and cats, it lasts 8 months,  it is water resistant, reaches 97% effectiveness in 48 hours against deer and lone star ticks, and is also effective against fleas. It is a relatively expensive collar. We were quoted around $50 from a local vet.

We are mainly interested in this collar because of the 8 month effectiveness, that way we can put it on her early and keep it on well after the hike. I was leaning toward the Scalibor collar, but it doesn't seem to be offered in the states anymore.


A week and a half later, Sheila is happy and healthy with no symptoms of tick-borne illness. Our little incident really opened up my eyes to the dangers of ticks on the trail. I just hope that our good luck will continue as we set out on the AT early next year!

I hope this is helpful to anyone looking for this sort of information. If you have questions or comments, please feel free to submit them below! Thanks for reading!

Florida Trail Overnight

This weekend's overnight on the Florida Trail was great. We hiked from the Pat's Island Parking Area to Juniper Springs, which is about 10 miles. This was Sheila's first official hike and campout, so we were anxious to see how she might do.

The original plan was to leave Friday night and do a bit of night hiking and to make our hike longer. The logistics of this didn't really work out, as Chase and his dad had to work late. So we set our alarms for 3:45am and tried our damnedest to get a good night sleep. Of course that night we were up until 11:30pm packing and getting things together, so when 4am came and went, we were still sleeping. I finally coaxed Chase out of bed at 4:15am and we started loading the car and making our finally adjustments. Chase remembered at the last minute to pack our mess kit, so we spent 45 minutes searching every nook and cranny in the house. When we finally found it, it was just after 5am and we knew we had to book it to St. Augustine to meet Mason, Chase's dad. We left St. Augustine at just about 7:00am and checked in at Juniper Springs around 9 to claim our campsite and drop off one of the cars. We then drove to the trailhead at Pat's Island and set off!

Chase leads and Sheila follows.

I first thought I would keep Sheila on the leash and just attach it to my pack. That got old really fast and by the time we got to Hidden Pond, I was letting Sheila run free. She learned very quickly that she was not permitted to go first, so she tended to run back and forth between the leader and whoever was in the middle. She probably hiked twice as far as the rest of us!

At Hidden Pond (mile 3.5), we took a welcome break to cool off and eat a light snack. I dipped by Buff and my Patagonia Capilene 1 shirt in the cool waters and relished the sensation of 72 degree water on my forehead and back. Sheila took a dip as well and seemed grateful for the opportunity to cool down. Feeling energized, we set off again through the soft sugar sand. We stopped to lunch on bagels, cheese, and apples just past Whisky Creek (mile 6). Again, it was great to take a break and sit in the shade for a moment or two. I always feel crappy after eating a heavy lunch, and this was no exception. As we packed up and set off again, my spirits were dampened as we heading into the most exposed patch yet.

It was a hot day with no cloud cover. The high was 91 at 2pm, which put us in the hottest part of the day on the most exposed section of trail. This was absolutely miserable. With feet starting to swell and my shoulder beginning to ache, I longed for road that would lead us into Juniper Springs. We ended up stopping for a break at about mile 8 in the middle of a desert. There was no shade, but we were thirsty and needed to rest our feet. Sheila found the only patch of shade and drank a few gulps a water before wanting to set off again. The clouds were beginning to roll in, so we pressed on and made it back to the campsite at about 3:30pm.

Sheila did absolutely wonderful. She pushed on harder than we did and STILL had energy left at the end of the day. I couldn't be more proud of her.

Sheila, Mason, and Chase after the hike.

Chase and his dad went to pick up the car back at Pat's Island, and I hung about camp with the dog. We both laid on top of the picnic table and relaxed. I began searching Sheila over for ticks when all of a sudden it started to get darker. I checked the radar, and sure enough, a great globule of rain was heading my way. I was prepared to throw Chase's rain jacket on Sheila and to hunker down, but thankfully none of that was necessary as the guys pulled up just in time.

They were both skeptical about the rain, even though the radar clearly indicated that it was going to be more than a brief shower. Chase and Mason began setting up the tents and right on cue the sky opened up. We were able to get the rainfly on the tent within a minute and Sheila hunkered down in the vestibule to wait it out. We waited out the rain under an umbrella (me in my rain gear, being the only reasonable one) and as soon as the rain quit, we wiped down the inside of the tent and pat down the dog.

Mason wasn't as fortunate. His old MSR Hubba Hubba has had it! The rainfly is no longer waterproof, so he ended up with a couple of gallons of water in his tent. We shook it out the best we could and rigged up a set up to help the rain fly do its job. We used some guy line and some hiking poles to keep the rain fly off of the mesh, which would hopefully help if it decided to rain in the middle of the night.

We decided to make a trip down to the spring to take a dip before sunset. Dogs aren't allowed in the day use area of Juniper Springs, so we took a trail from behind the campsite down to the boardwalk that leads to the spring swimming area, hoping Sheila would be quiet. She was very well behaved and we didn't meet anyone on the trail, so Chase held her while Mason and I went for a quick dip. Mason chickened out when he was only in up to his knees, but I was brave enough to submerge myself in the refreshing 72 degree water. I sat content while the minnows nibbled at my legs and feet. It felt so amazing. If you've never been in a Florida spring, I highly suggest you make a trip, before these ecological wonders are ruined or disappear.

Copyright SunyFLx4 Photography

We took a walk along the boardwalk that parallels Juniper Creek as the sun was setting and enjoyed a nice night "hike" back to camp. After a dinner of Ramen noodles and carrots, we cleaned up and got ready for bed. This would be the true test to see if Sheila could be trusted to actually sleep in the tent. She did great. She only woke up a few times throughout the night and only kicked me off of my sleeping pad for about an hour. The weather was nice and cool after the sunset, so we weren't kept awake by her incessant panting.

All in all, I think we've got ourselves a trail dog!

Finding a Dog Pack

This was a really sore subject for me, and I think Chase was getting a little annoyed with me about it. The very first thing we bought when REI opened here in Jacksonville, was their REI Ultra Dog Pack. We used our opening day gift cards and barely paid anything for it, so we were happy with the purchase. Until we got it home and put it on her.

She didn’t seem to mind it being on her, but the belly strap was just a little too tight in my opinion. Chase insisted that it should be snug, but i just wasn’t comfortable with it. So I set off to the Internet to find a better option.

I immediately found the RuffWear Palisades Pack and thought that it would be a good option. There was only one problem. Sheila is an Australian Shepherd, so she has a very deep chest, a narrow waist, and a fairly long body. The instructions for fitting on RuffWear’s website are to measure around the deepest part of the chest. And of course, Sheila is 27 inches, right between medium and small. We held off on this purchase for a few months (actually until after we got back from our Nantahala Shakedown) and we ended up going with the small, based on RuffWear’s recommendation.

Sheila, again, didn’t seem phased by the pack, and it fit a lot better than the REI pack. We went for a walk around our neighborhood with just a bit of water in each side pocket. I decided after a lap and a half that this wasn’t my ideal pack either. It tended to slide to one side or another based on which side of me she was walking on. I tried tightening the chest and belly straps more, but it still tended to one side or another. The REI pack did this as well, so I’m thinking it had something to do with all of her fur.

So it was back on the Internet. I have been following along with Jill at A Trail Life for a few months now and reading about their hiking adventure with Rooney, so I decided to try out the Granite Gear Long Howl Pack.

This has so far been my favorite pack for her. The design is quite different from the Palisades and the REI, and I think it works better for her over all. It is a bit smaller (capacity wise) and it’s a bit more difficult to put on and take off, but the weight is much more evenly distributed. I think we will be able to deal with the decreased capacity, as we are only planning on her carrying two days of food at a time. Our first chance to really test it out is coming up this weekend on our overnight in the Ocala National Forest along the Florida Trail. I’ll be sure to update when we get back.